Wicked Little Letters (2024)

I fucking hate trailers.

One of the most exciting parts of going to the cinema back in the day actually took place before the main feature. You were primed for whatever you were going to watch, sure, but there was something truly exhilarating about seeing a small one or two minute snippets of upcoming features, and having something extra to look forward to once you came out of the screening.

Trailers have been completely and utterly ruined. Instead of small teasers or ninety second previews, we're now subjected to trailers that are approaching the four minute mark, which show you clips from nearly every single big or important sequence from a film. It's taking away the excitement and surprise of cinema, and it's got to stop.

When the screening of Wicked Little Letters that I attended finally began, it felt like I had already sat through Alex Garland's new feature Civil War, the Anne Hathaway and Jessica Chastain starring Mothers' Instinct, as well as Ethan Coen's new film, Drive Away Dolls. Each of these trailers was ludicrously long, and seemed to almost spell out each film's highlights.

I mention all this because every film that I've seen at the cinema in the last few months has shown a trailer for Thea Sharrock's Wicked Little Letters- and I have laughed through the entire trailer more or less every time, especially the uncensored version. I couldn't wait to sit through ninety odd minutes of constant swearing, and if the trailer was anything to go by, the film was going to be laugh out loud funny the whole way through.

The problem, as ever, is that all the funny lines are in the trailer. That's not to say Wicked Little Letters is barren waste land for laughs outside of these; far from it, there's plenty to enjoy here, especially the performances. But it's kind of sold as something that is absolutely filthy; constant swearing delivered by two actresses on the top of their game, and perhaps something that Armando Iannucci or Chris Morris would have been proud of.

Based on the real life scandal of the Littlehampton Letters, a saga that took place on the south coast in the 1920's, we meet Edith (a delightful Olivia Colman) who lives with her parents (including a brilliantly horrible Timothy Spall as her Dad) and as the film begins she receives what we are told is her nineteenth nasty letter. These letters are full of vile, personal, but also quite bizarre abuse. Her Father especially is outraged at what his daughter's being subjected to, and he marches straight to the police station to accuse Edith's neighbour Rose (a magnificent Jessie Buckley) of being the poison pen holder and demanding the police finally do something about it.

The police are pretty dim-witted about the whole thing and it's left to 'police woman' Gladys Moss (Anjana Vasan) to investigate whether Rose is indeed guilty as everyone immediately assumes. We learn Rose and Edith used to get along fine until something happened that prompted the two of them to sever ties, and as far as the town is concerned, it's an open and shut case that will leave Rose spending time behind bars: leaving her young daughter (Alisha Weir) without a Mother.

Wicked Little Letters is good fun, superbly acted, and utterly harmless. The swearing (essentially the reading out of letters and some everyday expletives from Rose) is funny when it arrives but it's sporadic; we quickly realise that Wicked Little Letters is aimed at the Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2011-2015) audience rather than fans of In the Loop (2009). Which is perfectly fine of course, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel franchise is tremendous fun, but it sells itself to its intended audience whereas Wicked Little Letters pitched itself as arguably prim and proper British actors letting their hair down and starring in something truly rude.

One of the funniest things about the film (coming from someone who has lived in Littlehampton) is that none of the film appears to have been shot on location. The main square of the town is filmed in Arundel (ten minutes up the road from Littlehampton) and even the shots of the seafront have been filmed just along the coast in Worthing. I don't know what the location decisions officially were on the film, but a cynic might suggest that despite the fact that Littlehampton is mere minutes away from locations that were eventually used (and what you would assume would be much more costly places to film) it's just simply not a particularly nice place; perhaps a bit more, er, downmarket if you like.

Arundel certainly lends a more authentic feel to Wicked Little Lies, it is to be fair, a place architecturally and culturally steeped in the historical past. Which lends itself nicely to the story of Sharrock's film, and buries you in 1920's Sussex so whatever your misgivings about the authenticity of the locations used (and I have none) there's no denying that the sets and costumes work a treat.

Colman and Buckley bounce off each other brilliantly; Buckley is genuinely funny and Colman is tremendous, portraying a woman who has been under the thumb of a Father who doesn't want her to leave the family nest, and suffering badly for it. Every action Edith takes in the film we can understand, even when it might be to the serious detriment of others. Timothy Spall also deserves huge credit for this, he is truly horrible as Edith's Father as we slowly begin to grasp the full picture of what is going on. Vasan as PC Moss is a real find- some of the humour especially when it comes to the 'stupid policemen' is highly unamusing, bordering on embarrassing and obvious- but Vasan sticks out not only as the first female police officer in West Sussex ("Oh look- a flying pig") but because her performance rises above the frankly poor comedy on offer amongst what is supposed to be more comic relief in the police force, and adds much needed seriousness to proceedings.

As I said before, Wicked Little Letters is funny. But its major flaw is that despite the foul language, it's far too well behaved. I went back after the film and read some of the actual letters sent at the time, and they are hilarious (admittedly perhaps not at the time) but they're far more expletive laden than what we get in the film. As a British comedy perhaps I should have known exactly what to have expected, so the fault of my own grievances lies with myself. But this brings the trailer argument full circle. Don't make it four minutes long, and don't put all the best bits in the trailer, therefore giving your film far too much to live up to- especially in a comedy.

As Edith herself might have put it, "I fucking hate foxy-ass fucking trailers, they stink of piss and shit." 7.1/10